{"id":148522,"date":"2026-01-25T03:31:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T03:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/148522\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T03:31:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T03:31:22","slug":"top-los-angeles-federal-prosecutor-faces-blistering-criticism-for-response-to-minneapolis-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/148522\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Los Angeles federal prosecutor faces blistering criticism for response to Minneapolis shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top Los Angeles federal prosecutor Bill Essayli faced blistering criticism from gun rights groups, including the NRA, after he posted on X <\/a>Saturday about the fatal shooting of a U.S citizen<\/a> in Minneapolis by federal immigration officers.<\/p>\n

Essayli, the first assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, wrote: \u201cIf you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital, was believed to be \u201ca \u201clawful gun owner with a permit to carry,\u201d according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O\u2019Hara. Bystander videos show him holding a phone, not a weapon.<\/p>\n

In response to Essayli\u2019s tweet, the NRA posted on X<\/a>: \u201cThis sentiment from the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California is dangerous and wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post continued: \u201cResponsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.”<\/p>\n

After receiving significant backlash, Essayli accused another gun rights organization of “adding words to mischaracterize my statement.”<\/p>\n

“I never said it’s legally justified to shoot law-abiding concealed carriers,” he posted on X. “My comment addressed agitators approaching law enforcement with a gun and refusing to disarm …<\/p>\n

“My advice stands: If you value your life, do not aggressively approach law enforcement while armed. If they reasonably perceive a threat and you fail to immediately disarm, they are legally permitted to use deadly force.”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in L.A. referred The Times to Essayli’s post on X clarifying what he initially said. He declined further comment.<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom didn’t mince words, tweeting, “Wow. Even the NRA thinks Trump\u2019s DOJ stooge in California has gone too far for claiming federal agents were ‘legally justified’ to kill Alex Pretti.”<\/p>\n

Earlier, a second amendment lobbying group, Gun Owners of America, also criticized Essayli.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe condemn the untoward comments of @USAttyEssayli. Federal agents are not \u2018highly likely\u2019 to be \u2018legally justified\u2019 in \u2018shooting\u2019 concealed carry licensees who approach while lawfully carrying a firearm,\u201d the group posted on X. \u201cThe Second Amendment protects Americans’ right to bear arms while protesting\u2014a right the federal government must not infringe upon.”<\/p>\n

Essayli’s post received a community note \u2014 a crowd-sourced fact check \u2014 noting that “the U.S. Constitution (particularly the 2nd, 4th, and 14th amendments) prohibit officers from shooting citizens merely for possessing a weapon that is not an \u201cimminent threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shooting drew a large crowd of protesters in a city that had already seen widespread demonstrations after the fatal shooting by an ICE officer of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good weeks earlier.<\/p>\n

Essayli, a former Riverside County assemblyman, was appointed as the region\u2019s interim top federal prosecutor by U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi last April.<\/p>\n

Since taking office, he has doggedly pursued President Trump\u2019s agenda, championing hard-line immigration enforcement in Southern California, often using the president\u2019s language verbatim at news conferences.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. <\/a><\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top Los Angeles federal prosecutor Bill Essayli faced blistering criticism from gun rights groups, including the NRA, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5781,15325,14627,67901,48,52,51,734,47,50,49,73685],"class_list":["post-148522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bill-essayli","tag-central-district-of-california","tag-federal-prosecutor","tag-immigration-officers","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-law-enforcement","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-minneapolis-police-chief"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}